Volume 89 June, 2014 Firefox & DRM: Anything Firefox 29.0 To Worry About? You Either Like It, Unhappy With Firefox? Or You Hate It Here Are 21 Alternatives Handy Utilities To Organize Your Life, Part Three
Game Zone: Running With Rifles
Programming With Gtkdialog, Part Three
Installing Plex On Your PCLinuxOS System
GIMP Tutorial: Fire
PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: exploder
Print Your Poster With Ease
PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner
And more inside! Table Of Contents
3 Welcome From The Chief Editor 4 Screenshot Showcase The PCLinuxOS name, logo and colors are the trademark of 5 PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: exploder Texstar.
7 Firefox 29: You Either Love It, Or You Hate It The PCLinuxOS Magazine is a monthly online publication containing PCLinuxOS-related materials. It is published 9 Screenshot Showcase primarily for members of the PCLinuxOS community. The magazine staff is comprised of volunteers from the 10 Firefox & DRM: Anything To Worry About? PCLinuxOS community. 11 Screenshot Showcaase Visit us online at http://www.pclosmag.com This release was made possible by the following volunteers: 13 Unhappy With Firefox 29? Here Are 21 Alternatives Chief Editor: Paul Arnote (parnote) Assistant Editor: Meemaw 17 ms_meme's Nook: Sweetest Little OS Artwork: Paul Arnote, Timeth, ms_meme, Meemaw Magazine Layout: Paul Arnote, Meemaw, ms_meme 18 PCLinuxOS Puzzle Partitions HTML Layout: YouCanToo
21 Handy Utilities To Organize Your Life, Part Three Staff: ms_meme loudog Meemaw YouCanToo 23 PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Gary L. Ratliff, Sr. Pete Kelly Daniel Meiß-Wilhelm Antonis Komis 24 GIMP Tutorial: Fire daiashi smileeb Patrick Horneker 27 Screenshot Showcase Smileeb 28 Programming With Gtkdialog, Part Three Contributors: 36 Game Zone: Running With Rifles 38 Screenshot Showcase The PCLinuxOS Magazine is released under the Creative 39 Installing Plex On Your PCLinuxOS System Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license. Some rights are reserved. 41 Screenshot Showcase Copyright © 2014. 42 Print Your Poster With Ease 44 More Screenshot Showcase
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 2 Welcome From The Chief Editor
The last month has seen Mozilla capture headlines a much middle ground. Folks seem to either really like contrived monstrosity. Linux users were "promised" LOT. First, they released Firefox 29.0 with its “new” the new interface, while others seem to really hate it. an integrated helper app for Google Drive that would user interface. The new interface was panned by allow use of Google Drive as easily as Dropbox. We some and welcomed with a loving embrace by The opinions about Mozilla giving up the fight were told that such an app was "eminent." Years others. The fervor over the new interface had barely against restrictive DRM seem to be a lot more of a later, there still is no official support under Linux for begun to squelch when Mozilla grabbed headlines radical and “knee jerk” reaction. Many users cried Google Drive, from Google. Back when SketchUp again as the last of the “major” browsers to include foul, and felt as if Mozilla had sold them out. was under the Google "umbrella," Linux users pleas provisions for a new DRM scheme that has formally Granted, DRM and FOSS don’t seem to fit well for a Linux version were completely and totally been incorporated into the HTML 5.1 “standards.” together, especially philosophically. Others took a ignored. much more radical approach, suggesting the Hence, the reason for the trio of Firefox articles in removal of Firefox – and presumably everything else Google's total disregard for Linux users is legendary, this month’s magazine. Firefox has been a favorite Mozilla – from the repository, based on “ethics.” and the list can go on and on and on. Yet Linux is of Linux users for … well … forever, it seems. When supposed to warmly embrace Google if it "wants to such a major Linux favorite grabs that many THEN, as if the Firefox “storms” weren’t enough, it survive?" The last time I heard, a "hug" involved two headlines, it just can’t be ignored. It can – and has – was recently revealed that Chromium will no longer people embracing one another. One person (Linux) sent ripples throughout the Linux community. be able to play flash content in the near future. No hanging onto Google's leg and not getting a one I know will rush to the defense of flash, and response is called begging. Linux users no longer It seems that most everyone has an opinion about certainly not me. Flash has been a nightmare from wish to beg Google for support. Nor will they "sell the interface redesign, and there doesn’t seem to be the beginning. It’s security vulnerabilities and out" their principles. How fortunate that survival in troubles have been long and legendary. Most of us today’s multifaceted markets doesn’t totally revolve are biding our time, living with and adapting to its around one tech giant who has transformed itself serious flaws, until flash is a blemish in the history of from its founding credo of “do no evil,” to the very computing and it is supplanted with HTML5. embodiment of evil, at least in some users’ eyes.
Yet recently, Jack Wallen, the lone Linux voice at Google wants to pilfer from the Linux community, TechRepublic, made this ridiculous statement in one basing their Android OS on the Linux kernel, yet they of his recent columns (click the link to read the entire remain ever reluctant to give back to the community column, along with the reasons for the upcoming that breathes so much life into their immensely change/challenge for Chromium users). popular (and presumably, profitable) operating system. "Honestly, Linux will never succeed without embracing entities like Google. With companies like Google behind Linux will survive, with or without Google. Linux it, Linux could take over the world!" users will support and embrace Google when (if) that embrace becomes a two-way street. Until then, Seriously?! Linux is a success, with or without it's unreasonable to expect Linux users to embrace Google. It's Google who hasn't stood behind Linux. Google without getting anything in return. Let's see ... Linux users wanted a Linux version of Picasa. What did we get? The Windows version Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, wrapped in a WINE container, until Google serenity and prosperity. My cat, Buddie, “helping” me work on the magazine ABANDONED Linux users with even that ill- layout. PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 3 SSccrreeeennsshhoott SShhoowwccaassee Want to keep up on the latest that's going on with PCLinuxOS?
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Posted by tbschommer, May 1, 2014, running KDE.
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 4 PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: exploder as told to Smileeb
How old are you?
I am 52 years old. I was born in Conneaut, Ohio September 13th 1961.
Married, single or what?
I am married, third time now!
Children, grandchildren? Daughter-in-law, Granddaughter, and Boys I have 4 kids, Ashley, Donnie, Trent and Gabe and one grandchild, Hunter. Retired or working and for how long and at what? Courthouse Daytime I work for Stoneridge North America in Portland, Indiana. I prep heavy gauge and multi-core wires to build wiring harnesses. I have been at Stoneridge for Are you handy with your hands and have any about 8 years now. hobbies?
What is the area you live in like. Weather, I like working on cars and trying to fix up my house. I Quietness, Scenery? work on computers a lot and enjoy trying different desktop environments. I am an amateur when it I live in Hartford City, it's a quiet little town. The land comes to home remodeling, but it sure is a good is pretty flat around here, lots of fields and farms. feeling when things turn out nice. Currently it's winter here but we usually do not get very much snow. I remember being outside on What is your education level? Christmas with my brother and my grandfather and it was 60 degrees out! The weather changes here all I am a high school graduate. I went to Kent State Kids Event 2013 the time. University for one semester and dropped out. I also went to Ivy Tech and took a course on Machine
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 5 PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: exploder
PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight is an exclusive, monthly column by smileeb, featuring PCLinuxOS forum members. This column will allow “the rest of us” to get to know our forum family members better, and will give those featured an opportunity to share their PCLinuxOS story with the rest of the world.
If you would like to be featured in PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight, please send a private message to smileeb in the PCLinuxOS forum expressing your interest.
Old Jail Donate To PCLinuxOS What caused you to try Linux and join this Community Supported. forum? No Billionaires/Millionaires. I came across PCLinuxOS 2007 when it was under No Corporate Backing Or Funding. development, and I was very impressed! The lead developer was right in there with the community Click here to make a one-time donation working and I instantly liked his style and humor. through Google Checkout. Many of the people on the forum are around my age, and in a short time I felt like I really knew the people I was interacting with. Or, click one of the amounts down below Courthouse Nighttime to make a monthly, recurring donation. Trades. I liked Ivy Tech because I could take what The PCLinuxOS forum just seems like a family. really interested me and I really enjoyed it. Everyone supports each other, and not just where software is concerned. The people on the forum Do you like to travel, go camping? were there for me through some very rough times in my life, and their support helped more than anyone I used to go camping with my uncle and cousins. I could ever imagine. still have fond memories of camping. I do not travel much, since my eyesight is not the best these days PCLinuxOS just works, too. It has never failed me. I for driving. My wife Amanda does all of the distance have fun with the various editions, especially the driving. She can drive in big cities much better than I Enlightenment edition. can.
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 6 Firefox 29: You Either Love It, Or You Hate It by Paul Arnote (parnote) Many who were critical of the new user interface likened its appearance to that of the Google Chrome browser. Others criticized that some of their favorite Firefox “add-ons” no longer worked. Yet others didn’t care for the switch from squared to On April 28, 2014, Texstar released Firefox 29.0 to the PCLinuxOS repository. On rounded tabs. In many ways, the old, tired appearance that had been “Firefox” for one side of the fence, you would have thought that someone just witnessed a so long, was like home to many users, and they see no reason to “fix” something horrible, bloody murder. On the other side of the same fence, users were singing that isn’t broken. the praises for the new Firefox 29.0. There appeared to be no fence-sitting. Users either liked it a lot, or hated it a lot. All of the criticisms are valid. But in the world of software, things evolve and move on, whether we like them (or agree with them) or not. People are resistant to Firefox 29.0 was released with a whole new user interface (shown below). The change, especially when it appears to be change merely for the sake of change. criticisms mostly focused on the changes in the appearance of Firefox, which In many ways, it’s reminiscent of when KDE changed from 3.5.x to 4.x. represents a large departure from the time tested appearance users had become accustomed to. What’s easily overlooked, at least initially while users scold the Firefox developers and accuse them of high treason, is that Firefox is as configurable as it has always been. With just the addition of ONE Firefox add-on, you can get as much of the “old” interface back that you want.
Don’t like the tabs on top? No problem. Want to separate the back/forward buttons from the URL line? Easy sneezy. Want the add-on bar at the bottom of your Firefox window? Simple dimple. Do you prefer the squared tabs, instead of the rounded tabs? Esta muy facile!
Just download the Classic Theme Restorer v 1.1.8 add-on and install it in Firefox 29.0. With just this ONE add-on, you can then change all of those items, and then some more.
Firefox 29.0, as it appears after being started in safe mode, which is similar to the “out- of-box” experience.
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 7 Firefox 29: You Either Love It, Or You Hate It
There are four tabs of settings you can customize. I won’t go over all of them here, as I feel that most of them are fairly self explanatory. Plus, if you change a setting and don’t like it, it’s easy enough to change it back.
Below is the way my Firefox 29.0 appears, after tweaking it with the Classic Theme Restorer add-on.
item you see under “Additional Tools and Features” to where you want them to appear on the toolbar. It’s a simple as drag and drop. Click the green “Exit Customize” button (lower right) when you are done customizing.
Most of your favorite Firefox add-ons work with Firefox 29.0. There is, however, one very popular Firefox add-on that isn’t compatible with the newer Firefox – at least, it’s not available through normal add-on channels. That add-on is called Forecast Fox, and is probably one of the best weather forecast add-ons to have ever been devised (you can see it running in my “tweaked” Firefox screenshot, on the menu bar).
By default, the menu isn’t displayed at the top of the Firefox window. To make it The latest version, 2.2.4, which works with the latest Firefox 29.0, isn’t available appear, you will need to right-click your mouse on an empty spot of your toolbar, through the normal Firefox add-ons channels. It’s a mystery to me why Mozilla and place a checkmark in front of “Menu Bar.” hasn’t made this available, but the developer has made an update available. You can, though, download it from here. Another “feature” that mimics Google Chrome is the use of the “hamburger” button, in the upper right corner of the window. You can further customize the appearance of Firefox by selecting the “hamburger” button, then selecting Summary “Customize” from the bottom left of the menu that appears. If you love Firefox, I suspect you’ll keep loving it – and using it. If you don’t like Once in the customization mode, you can move pretty much everything and the new appearance, it will most likely grow on you, just as KDE 4.x did and a anything to a location you prefer. You can also add and remove items from the number of other “advances” in software. If it doesn’t grow on you, I suspect you’ll toolbar. Simply drag the items you don’t want from the toolbar and drop them into be in the market for a browser replacement. the area on the left, named “Additional Tools and Features.” Similarly, drag any
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 8 Firefox 29: You Either Love It, Or You Hate It
I did notice one additional benefit with the newest Firefox: it’s much more stable than earlier versions. I’m not sure why, but every version of Firefox since 25.0 has crashed almost daily on the multiple computers I have running here. With Firefox 29.0, I’ve only experienced one crash of Firefox in nearly LinPC.us a month of heavy, continual use.
Perhaps of greater concern to Firefox users than the change in Firefox’s appearance, is the fact that Mozilla has finally given in and included provisions SSccrreeeennsshhoott SShhoowwccaassee for supporting DRM (digital rights management, or as some call it, digital restrictions management). This recent revelation has done more to set the Firefox community on fire than the mere change of appearance. An awful lot of Firefox users are feeling that Mozilla “sold them out” by embracing DRM content. If you haven’t heard about this yet, I suspect you will. This Firefox firestorm has only just been sparked. When it will be introduced is still uncertain. Months of testing will have to be performed before it is fully implemented in a public release.
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PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 9 Firefox & DRM: Anything To Worry About?
by Paul Arnote (parnote)
In the middle of May, Mozilla announced to the world that they will embrace a new DRM (digital rights management, or digital restrictions management, as Richard Stallman has called it) scheme for the playback of protected (some might say restricted) content. That scheme, called EME (encrypted media extensions), will utilize a CDM (content decryption module) to stream protected content through the user’s web browser.
As you might imagine, the initial uproar among the web community was loud and quite negative. Our beloved open source browser would now include closed source DRM modules. Or, is it really as the nay sayers and negative Nellies initially think?
Let’s try to step back and look at this issue with a wider perspective. As early as January 2013, talk was circulating about the W3C consideration to include DRM specifications in the HTML 5.1 specifications. On September 30, 2013, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the rest of the W3C committee signed off on such a DRM specification, called EME. This proposal was from Microsoft, Google and Netflix, and was put forth to try to standardize DRM. Browser market share, July 2008 to October 2013 (Source: browsermarketshare.com)
Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, fought the proposal at As popular as Firefox is, especially among Linux users altogether becomes significant, as those users every step along the way. Mozilla put up one helluva users, Firefox’s share of the browser “market” has may just opt to use that “other” browser as their good fight. But at the end of the day, all of their fight been declining over the past five years. In that same predominant browser. was for naught. They were outmanned, time span, Google’s Chrome browser has come from outmaneuvered and outvoted. virtually no market share to becoming the predominant browser in the browser market. DRM: A Double Edged Sword Consider, if you will, the environment surrounding Mozilla’s decision. Opera, IE and Chrome all support The LAST thing Mozilla developers want is for users Indeed, DRM really is a double edged sword. On the EME/CDM specifications. That left Firefox as the to have to use another browser to view protected one hand, content providers want a way to protect only major browser vendor not supporting the DRM streaming content. But unless Firefox supported the copyrighted material from being pirated. You can specifications. EME/CDM DRM specifications, users would be hardly blame them. On the other hand, DRM, as it forced into doing just that. The risk of losing those currently exists, is extremely burdensome on the end PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 10 Firefox & DRM: Anything To Worry About? user. The user must have the right “keys” So what does all of this mean? trying to view Silverlight protected content under (extensions, plugins, etc.) to unlock the content. Linux. Not much, if you stop and think about it. DRM It’s also frequently not very easy to stream the same already exists, in one fashion or another, through According to Mozilla, you will always have the ability content on multiple devices. In many cases, if you Silverlight (although not on the Linux platform) and to say NO to installing the DRM modules, just as you “purchase” the keys to view protected content on Adobe Flash content. You already watch Flash can currently do with Flash or any other plugin one device, you often cannot view it on another content, and many Linux users are hell bent on module. No one is forcing Firefox users into device. Instead, you have to “buy” another key on the other device. That situation is a bit akin to buying a DVD, restricting the playback to just ONE DVD player, then having to buy another copy for every Screenshot Showcase DVD player you want to play it back on. Generally Screenshot Showcase speaking, the current DRM situation doesn’t allow for “fair use,” preventing playback of the purchased copy of the protected content on more than one device.
Mozilla’s preference was for watermarking content with something that uniquely identified the user. This would allow for the same content to be used between all the different devices a user might possess (smartphone, tablet, computer, desktop device, etc.), but provide a barrier to illegal file sharing. Should a user choose to share a file, the watermark would lead authorities back to the origin of the pirated copy.
Many have argued, rightfully so, that DRM is just a way for content providers to hang on to old business models, and avoid adapting to changing markets and market conditions. As it is in its current form, DRM heavily favors content providers and creates a nightmare for end users trying to jump through all the DRM hoops. In many ways, DRM encourages piracy of protected content, as users will try to circumvent DRM, rather than paying three times for streaming the same content on multiple devices, regardless of the existence of any laws (such as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act). Plus, there are those users who just love the challenge of trying to defeat any DRM, and they post their “successes” to share with everyone else.
Posted by elana, May 12, 2014, running MATE.
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 11 Firefox & DRM: Anything To Worry About? accepting DRM. That ability will, true to Mozilla’s stated goals, remain with the end user to decide to accept – or not.
The good thing about the EME/CDM DRM scheme is that it spells the end to Silverlight and Flash – eventually. Those two atrocities have needed to go away a LONG time ago, and their departure cannot happen fast enough. Instead, users will have one “standardized” DRM scheme to deal with that should work across all platforms. You can read more about Mozilla’s decision to reluctantly enable DRM in Firefox here and here.
Users shouldn’t blame Mozilla. After all, they are simply wanting to maintain their current market share, and perhaps even increase it. If anything, users should place blame equally on content providers tenaciously holding onto their old business models, and on the W3C – Sir Tim Berners-Lee included – for capitulating to the whiny demands of those content providers. Does your computer run slow? Like it or not, DRM content is here to stay – at least for the time being. And it will remain that way until Are you tired of all the "Blue Screens content providers embrace the digital age and adapt of Death" computer crashes? to the new business model that it brings with it. Currently, content providers want to embrace the Are viruses, digital age, but wrap it up in their old, outdated adware, malware & business model. Until that changes, DRM will be an ever present scourge upon content consumers. spyware slowing you down?
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Created with Scribus Download your copy today! FREE! PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 12 Unhappy With Firefox 29? Here Are 21 Alternatives by Paul Arnote (parnote) for Chrome work just fine in Chromium. Also, Chromium is perceived as being more secure than Chrome, but not for the reasons you might expect. The numbers of security vulnerabilities over time prove that, indeed, Chromium is The recent changes to Firefox 29 caused an uproar among faithful Firefox users. more secure. Many of those complaints were based on the cosmetic changes in Firefox. Beneath the surface, though, it remains the familiar Firefox that most of us have Chrome, Google. This is Google’s freely distributed, but closed source, version come to love and use. Sure, there are extensions and add-ons that no longer of the Chromium browser. While it’s a fast and capable browser, be forewarned work with the updated Firefox, but over the years, that has happened with many that it does include “phone-home-to-Google” code that may compromise the Firefox updates. Firefox remains one of the most secure browsers, if not THE anonymity of your browsing. Chrome has captured the top honors as the most most secure browser around today. predominant browser currently in use.
If you just simply cannot tolerate the changes to Firefox, here is an alphabetical Dillo. If you’re looking for a fast browser with a minimal footprint, Dillo may be list of alternative browsers in the PCLinuxOS repository. Perhaps one of them will just what you are looking for. Written entirely in C, it’s a graphical browser based make a suitable replacement. on FLTK2 that utilizes a subset of HTML. You won’t get HTML5 features, but then you also cannot use/display pages with frames, Javascript or JVM. Chromium. This is the open source version of Google’s Chrome browser. The nice thing about this version is that it doesn’t contain the “phone-home-to-Google” Dooble. Available in versions for Linux, FreeBSD, Windows and OS X, Dooble code that Chrome is (in)famous for. The vast majority of extensions and add-ons was created to improve privacy. It uses Qt for its user interface, along with the Qt Webkit library.
dwb. dwb is a lightweight web browser based on the webkit web browser engine and the gtk toolkit. dwb is highly customizable and can be easily configured through a web interface. It intends to be mostly keyboard driven, inspired by firefox's vimperator plugin. dwb is perfectly suited for tiling window managers, such as wmii.
ELinks. ELinks is an advanced and well-established feature-rich text mode web (HTTP, FTP, etc.) browser. ELinks can render both frames and tables, is highly customizable and can be extended via scripts. Besides its ability to render frames and tables, its features include the ability to display colors as specified in current HTML page, uses drop-down menu (like in Midnight Commander), downloading files in the background, and HTTP authentication. It is ran in a terminal session.
Jumanji. Jumanji is a highly customizable and functional web browser based on the libwebkit web content engine and the Gtk+ toolkit. The idea behind Jumanji is a web browser that provides a minimalistic and space saving interface as well as an easy usage that mainly focuses on keyboard interaction, like Vimperator does.
Konqueror. Konqueror uses the KHTML rendering engine, which was also selected by Apple to create WebKit. Today, WebKit forms the backbone for other
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 13 Unhappy With Firefox 29? Here Are 21 Alternatives browsers, such as Safari and Google’s Chrome. Besides supporting HTML5, pages using HTML5 and CSS3. Midori might be small (only a 4.6 MB download Javascript and CSS3, Konqueror also includes a built in ad blocker and popup from Synaptic), but it is mighty. It features a small collection of built in extensions blocker. to help with the most common desires of web browsing users, such as blocking ads. Additionally, Midori features built in privacy tools that allow users to disable scripts, block third party cookies, strip referrer details, and clear history automatically after a set amount of time, or when Midori is closed. If you haven’t looked at Midori in a while, you might be surprised. It has grown up.
Links. Links is a text based WWW browser, at first look similar to Lynx, but somehow different. It renders tables and frames, displays colors as specified in current HTML page, uses drop-down menu (like in Midnight Commander), can download files in background, and can partially handle Javascript. It is run in a terminal session.
Lynx. Lynx is a text browser for the World Wide Web. Lynx 2.8.7 runs on Unix, MacOS, VMS, Windows 95/98/NT, DOS386+ (but not 3.1, 3.11), as well as OS/2 EMX. It is run in a terminal session. NetSurf. NetSurf is a lightweight browser with its own layout and rendering Maxthon. Maxthon Cloud Browser delivers high performance and seamless engine entirely written from scratch. It is small and capable of handling many of browsing along with its core values of speed and a great out of the box the web standards in use today. experience. With speed and performance, Maxthon runs on an optimized WebKit core made faster by Maxthon's in-house Webkit R&D team. With the Maxthon Opera. Despite its relatively small market share, Opera has a very strong and Cloud Browser, you can automatically sync all of your tabs, bookmarks and loyal following. Opera is designed as a high speed browser, and most users find contacts across all of your platforms, so you can start reading something on your that tabs load faster, even on slower internet connections. Opera also checks PC, and continue reading it on your smartphone during your commute. Maxthon risky sites and alerts you to possible threats, hopefully before anything is is available for Linux, Windows, Android, iOS, OS X, and Windows Phone compromised. Its privacy settings allow you to surf the web without being tracked. platforms. Opera is also configurable with hundreds of downloadable extensions.
Midori. Midori is a lightweight but full featured web browser. Starting life as part QupZilla. QupZilla is a new and very fast World Wide Web Browser which uses of the Xfce desktop, Midori uses Gtk+2/3 and WebKit. It supports the display of the Qt Framework and its QtWebKit rendering core. It is a lightweight browser PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 14 Unhappy With Firefox 29? Here Are 21 Alternatives with some advanced functions like integrated AdBlock, Search Engines Manager, functions and flexible options so that you can reach your favorite destination on Theming support, Speed Dial and SSL Certificate manager. the Internet in the most convenient way while avoiding unnecessary distractions and annoyances.
Rekonq. Rekonq is a lightweight KDE browser based on Webkit. Its code is based on Nokia QtDemoBrowser, just like Arora. Its implementation is set to embrace KDE technologies to put forth a full-featured KDE web browser. While Rekonq will never have tons of features like some other browsers, it can provide a good tabbed browsing experience. It will use the KDE download system to download files, and it can share bookmarks with Konqueror. Rekonq can also Surf. Surf is a simple web browser based on WebKit/GTK+. It is able to display navigate in a proxied net, allow a user to browse anonymously, and allow users websites and follow links. It supports the XEmbed protocol which makes it to inspect web pages. possible to embed it in another application. Furthermore, you can point surf to another URI by setting its XProperties. Surf is a tabless browser, essentially SeaMonkey. SeaMonkey is an all-in-one Internet application suite. It includes a meaning that it’s like browsing with the browsers of long ago, where you could browser, mail/news client, IRC client, JavaScript debugger, and a tool to inspect only view one web page at a time. While Surf is best suited for lightweight the DOM for web pages. It is derived from the application formerly known as window managers, such as wmii, you should be able to run it under any desktop Mozilla Application Suite, and it uses the Firefox rendering engine to display web environment. pages. Tor Browser Bundle. The Tor software protects you by bouncing your SlimBoat. Fast, secure and powerful internet web browser based on QtWebkit. communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all SlimBoat is a free internet web browser that is fast, secure & loaded with around the world. It prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from powerful features. It is fast to start up and fast to open your favorite web sites. learning what sites you visit. Tor also prevents the sites you visit from learning SlimBoat helps you surf the internet safely and securely by incorporating multiple your physical location, and it lets you access sites which are blocked. Available layers of strong protection measures. SlimBoat also includes tons of powerful
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 15 Unhappy With Firefox 29? Here Are 21 Alternatives for Linux, OS X, and Windows, the Linux version will first connect to the Tor network, and then launch Firefox. The PCLinuxOS Magazine Xombrero. Xombrero is a minimalist tabbed web browser with sophisticated Special Editions! security features designed-in, rather than through an add-on after-the-fact. In particular, it provides both persistent and per-session controls for scripts and cookies, making it easy to thwart tracking and scripting attacks. In addition to providing a familiar mouse-based interface like other web browsers, it offers a set of vi-like keyboard commands for users who prefer to keep their hands on their keyboard. The default settings provide a secure environment. With simple keyboard commands, the user can "whitelist" specific sites, allowing cookies and scripts from those sites. It is distributed under the ISC license.
Summary
Well, there you go. If the recent changes to Firefox have you singing the blues, you have 21 “other” browsers to try out. Of course, by leaving Firefox, you’ll also be giving up on one of the most secure browsers around. Despite all the recent changes with Firefox, it remains one of the most configurable, most dependable, and most secure browsers around. Anyway, there’s nothing to lose (other than a little hard drive space) by trying out alternative browsers.
While Firefox remains my favorite browser, I also have Chromium and Chrome installed on all of my computers. On my computers running the Xfce desktop (which are most of them), I also have Midori installed. On one computer, I also have SlimBoat installed. On my computer that runs KDE, I also have access to Konqueror. While I may occasionally stray, I always come back home to Firefox. Variety IS the spice of life.
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PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 16 ms_meme's Nook: Sweetest Little OS
PCLinuxOS is the only one for me I fled from that Windows as fast as I could flee I never shed a tear as from it I did part And if I return again just shoot me in the heart
It's the sweetest little OS made by Texstar Always a working it is the best by far You may tweet about Ubuntu or even Red Hat But for PCLinuxOS I'll always go to bat
With PCLinuxOS you'll never have malware Open up your browser you'll never have a scare Come and join the Forum you're always welcome there You will find members about from everywhere
It boots up so quickly it never slows me down And if I need some help PCLOS geeks abound I just go to a console and paste in their code And that will bring me back again to my user mode
It's the sweetest little OS made by Texstar Always a working it is the best by far Everyone loves it that is no surprise MP3 OGG Download it right now that's what I advise
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 17 PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions
SCRAPPLER RULES: 1. Follow the rules of Scrabble®. You can view them here. You have seven (7) letter tiles with which to make as long of a word as you possibly can. Words are based on the English language. Non-English language words are NOT allowed. 2. Red letters are scored double points. Green letters are scored triple points. 3. Add up the score of all the letters that you used. Unused letters are not scored. For red or green letters, apply the multiplier when tallying up your score. Next, apply any additional scoring multipliers, such as double or triple word score. 4. An additional 50 points is added for e
SUDOKU RULES: There is only one valid solution to each using all seven (7) of your tiles in a set to r Sudoku puzzle. The only way the puzzle can be considered make your word. You will not necessarily e solved correctly is when all 81 boxes contain numbers and the be able to use all seven (7) of the letters in H your set to form a “legal” word. s
other Sudoku rules have been followed. n
5. In case you are having difficulty seeing o i When you start a game of Sudoku, some blocks will be prefilled the point value on the letter tiles, here is a t u for you. You cannot change these numbers in the course of the list of how they are scored: l game. 0 points: 2 blank tiles o 1 point: E, A, I, O, N, R, T, L, S, U S e Each column must contain all of the numbers 1 through 9 and 2 points: D, G l z no two numbers in the same column of a Sudoku puzzle can 3 points: B, C, M, P z be the same. Each row must contain all of the numbers 1 4 points: F, H, V, W, Y u through 9 and no two numbers in the same row of a Sudoku 5 points: K P 8 points: J, X d
puzzle can be the same. a 10 points: Q, Z o 6. Optionally, a time limit of 60 minutes l Each block must contain all of the numbers 1 through 9 and no n should apply to the game, averaging to 12 two numbers in the same block of a Sudoku puzzle can be the w Possible score 220, average score 154. same. minutes per letter tile set. o
7. Have fun! It's only a game! D PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 18 PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions PCLinuxOS Crossword Puzzle: June 2014 Browsers
1. Most predominant browser in use 2. Open-source version of Chrome 3. KDE based browser 4. Minimalistic and space saving, concentrating on keyboard commands 5. Browser with built-in email & IRC capability 6. Another well-known browser 7. Text based browser, run in terminal. 8. Originally a default browser in Xfce 9. Fast, secure and powerful browser based on QTWebKit. 10. New, fast browser which uses QT framework 11. Cloud browser, able to sync to all devices. 12. Fast browser with minimal footprint 13. Most secure browser - new version 29 just released 14. More secure by bouncing connections over several relays.
Download Puzzle Solutions Here
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 19 PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions Browsers Word Find
Z J Q G N V N L F C N G M E J B V X G X J L U C C Y O P T E J Q I V A M K I Z N Y H O I V Z W A E A G O D Y N R N N A K Z Q A H Y T W H B E E I O Y Z L A L I X C N X K N N U R C Q M C I H Y J O B X R U Z B Q L D Y V I Q Q B U F S C A S P M Chromium N R Z N T Z C F O S N Z U C W S I X U Q M U L A U E Y I F R Chrome U A Q P Z G F N F Z X Z K D Z V U P R V I K N M K M E C O W X T Y G H V N O E D Z O O O K D Z R I L V S E A M O N K E Y Dillo P Q O C J K S B R V A P M O V I R S D E Q Y R A Z R H A H X Dooble M G E V X Q L Q I T W P D B L C L W Z R L F B L F H N L Z B dwb G I M C O E J Z F N C F Y L R B B L M U I M O R H C S T C D elinks O N L I N K S U H W R D A E S E Z L D Q S A U Y B W P P I A Firefox C L R Y X Y P R H U P C V X U H R F E L M Y M J Z Q T L H D Konqueror N V X W N M E I S V D R G N E W X O R R Y I H C C E L Q R Y Jumanji M H M Z Y Z Q L X U N O H T X A M C P U D A W U B O T D F B Links Q O A A L E Q Q W Z F N L S O K O K H O S O W E P E X W M D Lynx S G G O U R W P U B C A R E P O S S R R W T Z W J A B L F X Maxthon H A U I U E Z A K R B Z U I G T H I A R O R E U Q N O K B Z
C O I I G I Q N J M U W Y L G K Z Y I S I D D N E Q Z Y Q B D Midori o NetSurf
U O N E J U M U H E Y K Q R O H K F O O T V O O O U D E R U w
A Q B P C N G M W L F G O R W B I D I N L U S F V J X Y U W n Opera l M M O W W J A I T X G C J C V J H K R G D P I O R A Z Y S X o QupZilla a
U U S S S V A M S G S Q S Q D W B Q D E N Y S K N I L E A Q d Rekonq
R E F T I G K X U L H L H Y L H G N O Q K N N V P I V F M Q P SeaMonkey T J R R K J J A C J I H S R J F O T E R W O L C B I X V R R u z Slimboat S Y V D O U M X Y F L M S N Q J Q Z R D E Z N S T B Z J I I z l Surf G Q H V M E N F M T H O B D X K D V S R W E G Q H G R K B J e
S Xombrero
Z D T K V G C Q I M Y J Z O U Z S B Y A M H M P J N S R O I o l
O A V N H Q W V E C A V P I A U C F C U U X U E S O T V N Z u t
S A H V O A N M R G F P L F H T X B U Q L U X T W B L N O Z i o
C U S A F B T F M Q E J D P E R V G R H B N L Z Q Q M K J Y n s H e r e
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 20 Handy Utilities To Organize Your Life, Part Three
by Meemaw Dexter is another very basic program. From alternativeto.net - Dexter is a very simple, easy to use address book, designed with the home user in Address Books mind. This personal contact manager integrates with Postler, and can import and export contacts in vCard We all have different ways of recording addresses. format. Opening Dexter for the first time, you see a Most of the email programs in use have an address window asking if you want to import a vCard address book in which we can save our friends’ email book file or create a new contact. addresses. Many of them have sections in which to save a friend’s physical address as well. I use Gmail most and have addresses stored there.
However, what do you do if your internet is down? I use Thunderbird at work, and use its address book to keep track of business contacts. Thunderbird’s There you can add all your contact’s information address book works even if I have no internet before clicking the “Close” button. The button shape connection, but I couldn’t access my Gmail contacts in the upper right corner is to add a photo, if you if I wasn’t online. Fortunately, the PCLinuxOS wish. You see the main fields - name, address, repository has a few standalone programs to help phone and email - but you can add several other me out. fields if you need them: MSN, Yahoo, AIM and ICQ nickname, birthday, homepage and a separate note space. Contacts is a basic address book with a small, When you have your contacts added, you will have a simple window. When you open it, you see the I imported some contacts from my Gmail, and can window below. You can increase its size by clicking list on the left side of the window. If you click on one of your contacts, the right side of the window will add as many more as I want simply by clicking on a corner with your mouse and dragging out the New Contact in the upper left corner. The new corner. have a summary of your added information. You can also import contacts if they have been exported from contact window looks like the one on the next page. another address book in vCard format (.vcf), but I You can add as many emails, phone numbers and don’t see an export function. However, Contacts is a addresses as you want by clicking the plus sign to nice, simple little address book. the right of the section you need. If you make a mistake, you can go back to your contact and click on the next button, Edit Contact. If you no longer need a contact, you can delete it with the Delete Contact button.
You can export your contacts in vCard form from Dexter. Click on the rectangle in the upper right of your window, and you will be able to export your All you have to do is click on “New” and an Edit address book. The menu also has a section where contact window will open, as show at center top. you can choose how to sort your contacts.
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 21 Handy Utilities To Organize Your Life, Part Three
click Save As…, but if I closed the program, there was nothing saved to open the next time I started it.
Abook is a program for those of you who want to do everything in your terminal. It is text-based, but still seems to do everything necessary. After installing from the repo, open a terminal, type abook and it will open with the following screen. I have already added a couple of contacts.
Notice from the help files that you can sort, search or export your address book, and even print it. If you love your terminal programs, this will work well for you.
It’s actually pretty straightforward. Keystrokes at the top of the window tell you what to do. If you want to add a contact, press a. You will see a new window with the impression of tabs at the top. The tabs say Contact, Address, Phone, Other and Custom. You can switch from one to another using your arrow keys. The first thing you will add is your contact’s name, then press Enter. The way to enter more information is to press the number in front of the field Dexter is a nice little program. you wish to add. The only other field in the Contact tab is 2 - email address. Arrow over to the Address tab and press 1 to add the street address of your Rubrica seemed like it would be a great program. contact, then press Enter (top right). From SourceForge: Rubrica is an addressbook manager for GNOME. It allows you to add personal Proceed through the tabs and fields in the same data (name, surname, address, etc.), web links, irc way, pressing the number of the field you want, and email addresses, telephone numbers, job adding the information and pressing Enter. When information (company where contact works, you are finished, press q for quit, and you will arrive I also have an abbreviated address book in a company infos, contact's assignment, etc.) and back at the main screen. You can use your arrow spreadsheet, just for Christmas cards & labels, but notes. However, the source code hasn’t been keys, then press enter to go to a contact and look at that isn’t everyone – just those to whom I send updated in about 18 months, and the version in the their information. Pressing ? will give you the help cards. It’s nice to have a separate address book, just repos is from 2008, repackaged in 2010. I couldn’t screens. Pressing q at the main screen will close the in case. I’m sure one of these will work just fine for get it to run on my laptop. I could enter contacts and program. you. PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 22 PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner
When it's finally done, place it on a plate with a paper towel to soak up the worst of the grease.
Line a small cake pan with tin foil and put the candied bacon weave crust in it. Trim any edges that stick out (and eat them!)
Pour the berries into the pan. It's fine if they stick out a bit over the rim, they will reduce down as they Blackberry Bacon Cobbler cook. Pour the bacony topping crumble over the berries This requires only six ingredients: other strip of bacon back a bit, and lay another strip and gently pat it down. 3/4 cup of flour of bacon along this edge and fold the strips back 2 cups of white sugar over it. Preheat the oven to 375F. Place the cobbler pan on 1/2 cup of butter a baking sheet to catch any drippings. Bake it for 3-5 cups of blackberries The strips it is lying along should now alternate over- about fifteen minutes, then check it every five until 18-20 strips of bacon under-over-under. From the other side of the the topping is golden brown and the berry juice About a cup of brown sugar weave, fold all the under strips back, all the way to starts to bubble up into it. Simple! the perpendicular bacon strip. Lay another strip next to it, fold the strips back over, and then fold back all First off, we need some well done bacon to crumble the new under strips. Repeat until into the topping. you've got a weave!
Simple cook three or four strips of bacon until they Turn on your oven to 425F. Rub a good are well done, and cool them on a plate with a paper amount of brown sugar all over the top towel. When cooled, crumble or run them through a of the weave, and put it in the oven. food processor. Check it every ten minutes or so, until it's started to brown nicely. Mix the flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Soften the butter and fold it into the dry ingredients. Carefully flip the weave with a pair of Mix it well until it's lumpy, it should stick together if tongs, and add more brown sugar. Put you squeeze it but crumble easily. If it seems too it back in the oven cook it longer, again dry add a bit of water, but be careful, just add it a checking every ten minutes or so. teaspoon at a time. Candied bacon can get overdone pretty quickly! Finally, stir in the crumbled bacon and set aside. Next time I make this, I'm going to pour On a foil lined baking sheet, lay out 7-8 strips of off the grease after the flip. I think it bacon side by side. Along one edge, fold every would have been better if the bacon weave had come out a bit more crispy!
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 23 GIMP Tutorial: Fire
by Meemaw Choose the smudge tool. (It looks like a hand with an outstretched index finger.) Click on the bottom stripe and draw your mouse up past the second When we were working on the July 2013 issue of the stripe. This creates what looks like a black and white magazine, parnote asked me if I could create a fire flame. Repeat this process along the stripes until the effect for the cover. So, I went looking for tutorials, white stripes are no longer visible. It might take a and found some. Two of the following are for while. creating flames across the bottom of a wallpaper. The third is for creating a very realistic looking explosion.
Creating Flames
This method will create flames that have a kind of “crackle” effect.
Create a new file with a black background. (File > New and clicking Advanced Options, and then Fill Creating the Crackle with foreground color). If for some reason you get something other than black, you can always choose Now we want to give it a sort of crackle effect. Click black as your color and use your bucket fill tool. Layer > New Layer. Click OK without changing the default settings. Select Filter > Render > Clouds > Click on the color palette and change the foreground Solid Noise. Set X to 13 and Y to 7. Click OK. color to white. Select the paintbrush icon. Paint a white horizontal stripe just above the bottom of the Set the layer's mode to canvas. It doesn't need to be perfectly straight. Paint Overlay. You can do this a second stripe 50 pixels above the first. This stripe from the Layers window doesn't need to be perfectly straight either. (I can’t on the right side of the draw a straight line most of the time, anyway!) screen. Mode is a drop down box near the top of the window.
Create another layer by Select Color > Color Balance. Set both the clicking Layer > New Shadows and Midtones so that Red equals 100, Layer. Click on Filters > Green is 25 and Blue is -25. Set the Highlights so Render > Clouds > that Red is 100, Green is 0 and Blue is -100. This Plasma. Set Turbulence turns the black and white flames into red and yellow to 5 and then click OK flames. (next page, top left).
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 24 GIMP Tutorial: Fire
fire. Do the same with yellow, making sure some red the Y-Value to 7. Duplicate the layer with the clouds. is still showing. Repeat with white. Your drawing Set both cloud layers’ Mode to Overlay. should look similar to the screen below. It should now look like this:
Select Colors > Desaturate, and then OK.
Set the this layer's Mode to Overlay as well. You now have a fire with a crackle effect.
Right now, the fire looks really primitive. Click on Filters-->Blur-->Gaussian Blur. Set Vertical and Create a new transparent layer. Go to Filters > Horizontal to 100. You should now see something Render > Clouds > Plasma. Set the Turbulence=5 similar to the image below. and click OK. Now go to Layers > Colors > Desaturate. Set this cloud layer’s options to Overlay, too.
Another Flame Method
Create a new file filled with black, and create a new transparent layer. It looks better but still doesn't look realistic. Create a The fire will be made with 3 colors, red, yellow, and new transparent layer and go to Filters > Render > white. Using a red color, draw the basic shape of the Clouds > Solid Noise. Set the X-Value to 13 and
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 25 GIMP Tutorial: Fire
If you want edit the fire a little more, you can just go Desaturate this layer, then click Colors > Color to Filters > Distort > IWarp. Play around with it to Balance, and make sure the Preserve Luminosity get what you like. I didn’t do anything in IWarp. box is checked. While you have that window open, also adjust the Shadows/Midtones/Highlights color levels until you get the desired look of your fire. The An explosion effect. following settings look pretty good: Shadows: 88, -65, -56 / Midtones: 71, 35, -49 / Highlights: 91, 87, Open a new file whatever size you want. Fill it with a -5) gradient (black to white), making sure at least 1/4 of your page is white. The white will be the brightest Merge ALL layers down, then select Blur > part of your fire. Selective Gaussian Blur. Set Blur Radius at: 25 and Max Delta at: 50. You’re done!
Create a new layer (transparent) and and click on Filters > Render > Clouds > Plasma, and set the Turbulence to 6. Find the plasma pattern that you like by repeatedly clicking New Seed. Set the layer mode to Grain Merge. Reach Us On The Web Support PCLinuxOS! Get Your Official PCLinuxOS Magazine Mailing List: http://groups.google.com/group/pclinuxos-magazine PCLinuxOS Merchandise Today! PCLinuxOS Magazine Web Site: http://pclosmag.com/
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PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 26 SSccrreeeennsshhoott SShhoowwccaassee
Available in the following desktops: Posted by Aleph, May 16, 2014, running KDE. KDE LXDE Xfce Openbox MATE Enlightenment e18
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 27 Programming With Gtkdialog, Part Three
by Peter Kelly (critter)
MY_DIALOG='
In the preceding code, some of the lines are quite long, so I have split them over
The rest of the code is stuff that we have seen before and serves to decorate and format the dialog.
The Edit widget
This what to use when you need to work with multiline text. The text can be entered directly into the box from the keyboard, or loaded from an existing file. It may also be saved to a file of your choice. This widget can display both horizontal and vertical scroll bars to accommodate text. Also supported is insert/overwrite mode, text-wrapping and text justification.
The following little example demonstrates the basic usage of the widget. We have already covered most of the stuff here in previous examples, but the two attributes specified in the edit markup need a little explanation. You may #!/bin/sh specify one of four values to wrap-mode: 0 disables text wrapping, 1 wraps text at the edge of the visible text area breaking words if necessary, 2 wraps text only touch myfile at a word boundary and 3 is a stronger version of 2 which considers graphemes, such as ligatures which may be present in some languages but is safe to use in EDIT_DIALOG='
The Terminal widget
gtkdialog program=EDIT_DIALOG
Menus #!/bin/sh Menus in gtkdialog are constructed by providing a menubar widget which touch results contains one or more menu widgets. Each menu widget, in turn, holds menuitem widgets, menuitemseparator widgets and other, nested menuitem widgets. EDIT_DIALOG='
EDIT_DIALOG='
' export EDIT_DIALOG export ABOUT_EDIT gtkdialog program=EDIT_DIALOG
Now we have some new stuff here. We have two scripts describing the windows that we shall show. One is named EDIT_DIALOG, which is the main window, and the other one is named ABOUT_EDIT, which we shall only display when the Help - About menuitem is clicked.
The main window is the editor we used previously, with the addition of a menubar and the 'save file changes' button removed, as it is longer required. The menu 'useunderline' tag sets up the shortcut key to use the character following the underscore in the 'label' tag. In the menuitem widgets, the accelerator key combination is set up using two tags: 'accel-key’ is given the hexadecimal ascii value of the upper-case character that we want to use, the 'accel-mods' is given a value constructed from 1 for The shift key, 4 for the control key and 8 for the alt key. These values may be added so the you would use 9 (1 + 8) for shift + alt. This automatically provides the correct text hint in the menuitem.
The Save menuitem applies the save function to the edit widget named 'edit1.' The Quit menuitem simply exits the application, and the About menuitem launches the ABOUT_EDIT dialog window.
Using the List and Progressbar widgets
These two widgets are completely independent, but I use them together in the next example.
The list widget takes a list of text items and displays them in a dialog box to allow the user to select one of them. You can specify how, or if, horizontal and vertical The ABOUT_EDIT window has the 'modal' tag set to true, which means that it scroll bars appear and which item in the list should be highlighted on startup. In must be closed before you can use the parent window. The signal 'focus-out- the example, I have chosen to show the first item (item 0) on startup, but have event' prevents the parent window getting focus. The rest of this window consists then selected a different file in the screenshot. of a simple vbox containing various text and graphic elements with a single button dismiss the window. In this example, I am going to get the list remotely from one of the PCLinuxOS repositories. The list will be of all of the currently downloadable Live CDs of this
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 32 Programming With Gtkdialog, Part Three distribution. The code to do this is not, I'm afraid, beginner level stuff, but like all
#!/bin/bash
# set the repository to use REPO=http://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/li vecd/
# get the html source of the download page from the repo wget q O /tmp/dl_list $REPO
# filter out all but the names of the iso files cat /tmp/dl_list | sed n '/"pclinuxos/p' | awk F"\"" '{ print $6 }' | sed n '/iso$/p' > /tmp/iso_list
# or use the line below to include the name of the md5sum checksum export PROGRESS_DIALOG=' files
# show the dialog to choose a file to download We now need to strip away a lot of the html code and leave only the parts that we gtkdialog program=LIST_DIALOG want. The first line that starts with the cat command will leave only the filenames # show the download progress dialog that end in '.iso.' The other line two lines down, which is commented out here, will gtkdialog program=PROGRESS_DIALOG include the md5sum files in the list. Add and remove the hash marks as required. The refined list is then saved to the temporary file /tmp/iso_list. If you understand # clean up – remove all of our temporary files rm f /tmp/dl_list how it works – great. If not, just use it anyways. rm f /tmp/dl_iso rm f /tmp/iso_list The LIST_DIALOG code uses the usual assembly of widgets we have become # all done used to, but includes the new list widget. The list of items to display is read from the code in the tag pair, which here is the command 'cat /tmp/iso_list,' which simply sends the contents of the file to the list widget. The list widget has been given the name LIST1, and so the variable LIST1 will contain the currently selected list item.
Clicking the OK button saves the contents of the LIST1 variable to the temporary file /tmp/dl_iso, and then closes the LIST_DIALOG. The script next calls the In the menu example, we used two dialog scripts, EDIT_DIALOG and gtkdialog application with the PROGRESS_DIALOG as its' script to run. ABOUT_EDIT. The EDIT_DIALOG code launched the ABOUT_EDIT dialog when required, and the two dialogs we both visible on screen as this seemed to be the Again, we have a simple dialog assembled from the usual widgets, with just the most appropriate way to do things. In this example, once we have selected our progressbar widget new to us. The progressbar widget needs input that file from the list, we have no further use for the LIST_DAILOG, so we exit it and continually changes from 0 to 100. For this input we again use the wget jump to the code for the PROGRESS_DIALOG. This method has the advantages command. Now we use the rather clever -c option that tells wget to continue from of making our code simpler, easier to read and re-usable in other applications. wherever it was in downloading the file if this is another attempt to get a file that did not finish downloading. This is a very useful option when downloading large ISO files. We reuse our REPO variable as the source of the download, and the How it works: /tmp/dl_iso file as the name of the file to download. The rest of the code in this line serves to strip away all but the current percentage downloaded so that the Apart from the first line, which tells the system to use the bash shell to interpret progressbar slider position can be updated and the present situation displayed. the following code, all lines starting with a hash symbol '#' are comments and are ignored. Unfortunately, comments are not allowed in the Gtkdialog code without When the file has finished downloading we remove the three temporary files that some trickery, which would confuse things at this stage. we created.
First we assign the URL (web address in this case) of the repository that we want If you decide to download the checksum file to accompany the large .iso file, and to use to the variable REPO. This helps to make the code a little less cluttered. you really should, then this is how you use it. Both files must be in the current directory. Next, we use the wget command to download the html source code of the Live CD repository. This contains the filenames of all of the files available for $ md5sum c pclinuxos64lxde2014.04.md5sum download. The wget command is extremely useful in cases like this, with lots of pclinuxos64lxde2014.04.iso: OK options to enable you to customise the way it works. Here we use the -q option to tell it to work quietly, and output only the downloaded file without any confusing If you get OK then the .iso file is safe to use, anything else and then something messages. The -o option tells wget to output the downloaded file to the went wrong with the download. temporary file /tmp/dl_list. Finally, we tell wget to use the contents of the variable REPO as the place from where to download our file. $ md5sum c pclinuxos64lxde2014.04.md5sum pclinuxos64lxde2014.04.iso: FAILED md5sum: WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 34 Programming With Gtkdialog, Part Three
These little example programs are far from perfect. They were never meant to be might otherwise require a much larger application that probably would not work in perfect, but they do work. This is what gtkdialog widgets are for. They provide a exactly the way that you would like. way of building graphical applications quickly and with minimal programming knowledge. I wrote and tested the download application in under two hours, but I If you do persevere and build an application that is useful, does all of the could spend another two days refining it. The application can be useful, but since necessary error checking and includes internationalisation for users of other I will probably only use it two or three times a year, it suffices. The Gtkdialog languages (actually quite simple to do under Linux) then consider sharing it. widgets provide a means of constructing little utilities to perform the tasks that There are several such items already available in the repositories.
The PCLinuxOS Magazine Linux Training Courses & Classes Created with Scribus
Everything you might want or need – Full Monty ... plus the kitchen sink! PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 35 Game Zone: Running With Rifles
by daiashi top-down, tactical shooter for single player and 12. Deploy cover elements to strengthen your multiplayer online, that puts you right in the middle of fellows’ positions or use vehicles for mobile chaos in towns, trenches and forests turned into cover ruthless battlefields, controlling just one soldier in an 13. Campaign and quick matches, with Map Capture army of several hundreds. or King of the Hill game modes 14. Locate & destroy the radio truck/tower behind In a war where men die like flies and endless enemy lines, or steal their cargo truck and streams of reinforcements run to fill the void, it takes deliver it home tactics and marksmanship to capture territories 15. Windows and Linux supported effectively. The open world nature of the game 16. 24/7 servers in Europe and USA supporting 30+ enables you to use a multitude of approaches to players About The Game help the front line move – it’s up to you to shape your role. Experience the complete arc, starting as a Much, much more to come. RUNNING WITH RIFLES is a top-down tactical private hardening into a high ranking officer with a shooter with open-world RPG elements. squad under command, arming yourself with a variety of weapons and vehicles on your way to System requirements: In RWR, you join the ranks of an army as a common glory! soldier, just like the thousands around you. To your Fully updated PCLinuxOS and Steam superiors, you're nothing but cannon fodder. Key features, so far Hardware: The open world approach lets you define your own 2 path and story in the campaign. Push back the 1. 8x1 km maps with total of 62 bases * Minimum: enemy with your comrades, or go deep behind 2. Hundreds of simultaneous AI soldiers * Processor: 1.6 GHz Dual Core enemy lines to sabotage their efforts and loot 3. Open world: it’s up to you how you play, the war * Memory: 2 GB RAM valuable items. goes on without you * Graphics: NVidia Geforce 6800, ATI x800, Intel 4. Not your usual “I’m the hero” shooter game: one HD3000 or equivalent with 256MB VRAM - As you gain experience, you are promoted to a bullet kills more often than not please note that the game is not playable with higher command level over soldiers and equipment. 5. Use cover, crouch and prone, move with others to ATI/AMD proprietary drivers! Call in artillery fire missions or paratrooper increase your odds to stay alive * Hard Drive: 400 MB available space reinforcements when the situation gets tight! Use 6. Emergent AI that tries hard: they too use cover your squad to man armed boats, tanks and APC's, and rooftops, attempt outflanking * Recommended: or become the expert lone wolf you always aspired 7. Gain XP to get promotions to lead your own * Processor: 2.4 GHz Dual Core to be. It's up to you! squad, unlock items & calls * Memory: 2 GB RAM 8. A broad variety of faction specific weapons 9. Grenades, bazookas, remote detonable sticky C4, What is RUNNING WITH RIFLES? riot shields, medikits, vests, rare weapons 10. Mortar strikes, paratrooper reinforcements, Pick up your rifle and join the Greenbelts, vehicle drops Graycollars or Brownpants in their mission to send 11. Jeeps, transport trucks, APC’s, boats, tanks, the enemy home in a box! RWR is an open world, patrol ships with AI driving
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 36 Game Zone: Running With Rifles
Some Gameplay Screenshots Getting It To Run
Install Steam (if you don’t have it installed already), then start it. You will need to create a new account, if you do not already have one. Once you have Steam up and running, go to the store tab. Click on the Linux tab, if you wish, and search for Running With Rifles. Click on and download the demo. If you have updated your system, including graphics drivers, you should be good to go. If you ever wanted a top down view, this just might be it. This is a very fun game.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/270150/
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There Are No Stupid Questions
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 37 Defending Your Rights LinPC.us
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In The Digital World
It's easier than E=mc2 It's elemental It's light years ahead Posted by zerocool, May 10, 2014, running KDE. It's a wise choice It's Radically Simple It's ...
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 38 Installing Plex On Your PCLinuxOS System
by YouCanToo Getting started WARNING: DO NOT USE THE NEWER PLEX RPM (plexmediaserver-0.9.9.7.429-f80a8d6.i386.rpm) Minimum Requirements — no transcoding FROM THE PLEX WEBSITE AS IT WILL CAUSE NOTHING BUT SEGMENTATION ERRORS! * Intel Core 2 Duo processor 1.6 GHz or better * At least 1GB RAM for Windows/Mac OS X Install using the following command as the root user. * At least 512MB RAM for Linux * Windows XP with SP3, Windows Vista SP2, rpm -Uvh plexmediaserver-0.9.8.17.282- Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 c844f09.i386.rpm * Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3 or later (64-bit) * Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS or SuSE Linux You should see something like this What is Plex? * It even runs on PCLinuxOS [root@localhost 28CF-DA49]# rpm -Uvh Plex is a centralized home media playback system Recommended Configuration — transcoding HD plexmediaserver-0.9.8.17.282- with a powerful central server, the Plex Media Content: c844f09.i386.rpm Preparing... Server, that streams its media to many Plex player ########################################### apps. The Server is available on many platforms like * Intel Core 2 Duo processor 2.4 GHz or better [100%] Mac OS X, Windows, many flavors of Linux, as well * If transcoding for multiple devices, a faster CPU 1:plexmediaserver as many NAS devices like ReadyNAS or Synology. may be required ########################################### * At least 2GB RAM [100%] Now for the standard warnings: As always, it is * Windows XP with SP3, Windows Vista SP2, /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.8kXwXA: line 29: semodule: recommended to only use software found in the Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 command not found Synaptic repository. By installing the Plex Media * Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3 or later (64-bit) warning: %post(plexmediaserver- * Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS or SuSE Linux 0.9.8.17.282-c844f09.i386) scriptlet Server from an outside source, it may cause failed, exit status 127 problems with your system, now or in the future. * It even runs on PCLinuxOS [root@localhost 28CF-DA49]# Installing software from outside the official PCLinuxOS repository WILL render your installation Make sure that your system is fully updated You can safely ignore this error, as PCLinuxOS does a non-standard installation. As such, you may not be before proceeding. not use SELinux. able to get support in the forum should the installation of this software this cause issues with Download the Plex Media Server from here: Start the Plex Media Server using this command as your system. Also be aware that this installation was root, in a console window. done on a 32 bit version of PCLinuxOS. The 32 bit RPM installation was not attempted on a 64 bit version of http://archives.pclosusers.com/plexmediaserver- service plexmediaserver start PCLinuxOS. 0.9.8.17.282-c844f09.i386.rpm [root@localhost /]# service plexmediaserver 64 bit RPM start All your http://archives.pclosusers.com/plexmediaserver- Starting PlexMediaServer: [ OK ] PCLinuxOS 0.9.8.18.290-11b7fdd.x86_64.rpm [root@localhost /]# connections in one convenient location! You will also need to have a Plex account, so head Connect over to https://plex.tv/ and sign up. While you are PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 39 Installing Plex On Your PCLinuxOS System there, be sure to pick up an app for the device you YouTube, and picked something I wanted to watch. I Once I signed into my Plex account, I once again wish to stream to. In my case, I chose the Roku then clicked on my Plex It! bookmark, and a query clicked on the Plex It! bookmark. This time, I got a player app. Follow the on screen display to install window opened to the left side of the screen. Since I "looking for queue" message, along with a your app. was not signed into my account, it displayed a link to countdown timer. You will see a green check mark sign in. when your video has been added to your queue. You will also need to add a plexmediaapplet bookmark.
I created a new bookmark with the name Plex It! and set the location to javascript:%20var%20s=document.createElemen t("script");s.type="text/javascript";s.src="//my.pl exapp.com/queue/bookmarklet_payload?uid=20e 14726a659fff3";var%20h=document.getElements ByTagName("head")[0];h.appendChild(s);void(0);
I placed this in my bookmarks toolbar.
You can also go to http://plex.tv/web/app#!/playlist/queue/help and drag the Plex It! button to your bookmarks bar.
To check to see if things were working, I opened my web browser, Firefox 29.0.1. Next, I went to
At this point, I wanted to see if I was streaming the video to my Roku box. I went to the Plex channel on my Roku box, and sure enough, there was the video I queued. When I finished watching my YouTube video on my Roku box, I deleted it from the Roku query.
You now have Plex Media Server running on your PCLinuxOS machine. The possibilities are almost endless on what and where you can stream to.
The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 40 All your linuxfordummies.org PCLinuxOS Disclaimer connections in one There Are No Stupid Questions 1. All the contents of The PCLinuxOS Magazine are only for general Connect convenient location! information and/or use. Such contents do not constitute advice and should not be relied upon in making (or refraining from making) any decision. Any specific advice or replies to queries in any part of the magazine is/are the person opinion of such experts/consultants/persons and are not subscribed to by The PCLinuxOS Magazine.
2. The information in The PCLinuxOS Magazine is provided on an SSccrreeeennsshhoott SShhoowwccaassee "AS IS" basis, and all warranties, expressed or implied of any kind, regarding any matter pertaining to any information, advice or replies are disclaimed and excluded.
3. The PCLinuxOS Magazine and its associates shall not be liable, at any time, for damages (including, but not limited to, without limitation, damages of any kind) arising in contract, rot or otherwise, from the use of or inability to use the magazine, or any of its contents, or from any action taken (or refrained from being taken) as a result of using the magazine or any such contents or for any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of information contained on the magazine.
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Posted by parnote, May 2, 2014, running Xfce.
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 41 Print Your Poster With Ease
by Meemaw saved as an image file. I saved mine as a png. The 3. Decide how much and direction of overlap. When window to load your file is shown here. you tape your poster together, it will be easier to match up the edges of they overlap a bit. Once a year, my company helps sponsor an Earth Day celebration to help educate local students about many aspects of agriculture, including conservation. In the course of preparation for the day, one of my jobs is to create and print a large poster to be displayed, thanking everyone who donated funds or materials to our project. The finished poster is usually 45” by 45” and is attached to a large board so everyone who passes it can read it easily.
Before I started using Linux, I used a Windows program called Print Artist to make the poster and print it out on 8.5” by 11” sheets of paper, and then taped them together into the poster. Now that I use Linux, I can create the poster using Scribus, but I have had trouble finding a Linux program that will print it. The pdf viewers don’t seem to print poster sizes yet, and Scribus doesn’t either, so I was 2. Indicate the paper size you are using to print - stuck…. until I found PosteRazor. plus the orientation & margins you need. 4. Enter the number of pages wide the finished product should be (the length will adjust), and how PosteRazor is a handy program which converts the you want it aligned on the pages (top left, centered, poster you want to print into a set of pages in pdf etc). I chose top left, but you could center it, and format, which can be printed and taped together into then you probably wouldn’t have to trim anything off your finished product. From their website: The the sides. If you need your poster a certain size (like PosteRazor cuts a raster image into pieces which 48” x 36”), click Absolute Size rather than Size in can afterwards be printed out and assembled to a pages. I originally picked 5.5 pages (because that poster. PosteRazor is in our repository. would be 44”) but it didn’t come out correctly, probably because of the overlap, so you need to After installation, you are guided through five steps designate an absolute size if you need it that way. to your finished product. For this article, I will use a You can also choose a percent, so if your picture is a png of Tux dressed as Indiana Jones. The program certain size and you want to increase it 300%, you defaults to English and centimeters as your unit of can do that. You will have a preview as well, so if it measure. If you need to change either of these, click isn’t the way you want it, you can change the on Settings at the bottom left of the window. settings before you save (next page, top left).
1. Designate the file you are using. Your project in 5. Save your poster with a meaningful name - it will Scribus, or whatever program you use, should be save as a pdf.
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 42 Print Your Poster With Ease
International Community PCLinuxOS Sites
Netherlands
Turkey
Denmark Czechoslovakia
Oh, yes….. the event was great!
Italy Visit Us On IRC • Launch your favorite IRC Chat Client software Poland When you open it in your favorite pdf viewer, you will (xchat, pidgin, kopete, etc.) have a multi-page document to print and tape together. Here you can see the pages in a pdf viewer (center, top). • Go to freenode.net
For the big poster at our event, I printed it on about • Type "/join #pclosmag" 20 pages, and taped it together. I’m so glad I found this program! It’s really easy to use. (without the quotes) Brazil
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 43 More Screenshot Showcase
Posted by RobNJ, May 16, 2014, running e18. Posted by nymira, May 1, 2014, running LXDE.
Posted by LKJ, May 2, 2014, running MATE. Posted by Meemaw, May 2, 2014, running Xfce.
PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 44